Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Every now and than we break out the kinnect. Max is getting pretty good at it. Once he turn it on it's hard for him stop. I think this night it was raining and we needed something to do while dinner cooked. Here Max is playing a rafting game and than fruit ninga, with a little help from Alex.

As many of you know I have had issues with my ring the past few years about. My skin gets really irritated underneath it almost like I have an alergic reaction, than I can't wear it for a while until it heals. I've sent it off to get covered in rhodium about 4 to 5 times which supposidly is hypoallergic. I had the problems even after I would send it off to get it covered. Than they thought I was cleaning the house with something and it would get underneath the ring and cause skin irritation, so they would have me bring it in to get cleaned really good, and than let me hand heal, than I would put it back on. so on and so on, etc etc. It was a very frustrating process. I don't think I wore my ring all of September. Finally on Friday October 12th I met with a Jeweler who measured the rings, measured my hand and found out they were all three different sizes! He said one was a 7.5, one was a 7 and 3/4 and my hand measured an 8! He also mentioned that it looked like whoever soldered them together didn't do a good job and left some space between the rings which could cause moisture build up. So, I had the rings sent off, resized to size 8, recovered in rhodium, and re soldered together again. I also had all of the prongs resized. I just got it back this Monday. I am very excited about my ring, and excited to have it back. I hope whatever or all they did the 3 weeks while it was away worked and I don't continue to have ring problems. I sure am glad to have a ring back on my finger, feels like I got engaged all over again, haha :)

Every Fall we get excited about the Craft fairs. When I was little my mom used to take me. It was a time that family and friends would come and we would go to the craft fairs. It wasn't all about the shopping but more about getting to go somewhere fun, walking around looking at all of the neat stuff, eating a funnel cake, smelling all of the other fair food, etc, etc. This year I was excited to go with everyone because I was wasn't working. My sister also took time off work to go (Thursday and Friday) and my aunt Phyllis drove 12 hours from Colorado to join us and she brought her friend Sue. Well I decided I might be a little crazy, but I was going to do it....I brought the boys. It was either that or not go, and I wanted to go, so I decided to give it a shot. To my surprise they did great. It was a fun time with everyone and the boys had a blast.

Here is Alex asking for more snacks :)

Max in the back seat - off to pick up Aunt Kelley!

After we picked up Aunt Kelley I got booted to the back...full car!! but me and Max had fun

Here is a picture at Bella Vista fair. We got to take a hayride to get to the fairs. I think Max was more excited about the tractor ride than the fair!

I took the wagon, blankets, popcorn, and chocolate milk, and the ipad! I think these boys were in heaven. If I only had a $1 for how many people commented on how cute they were and how much fun they were having.

mom and Max take a break. We always wait at the end of the row to meet up

This is at the Convention Centers on Friday. Alex was having fun with Sue's cane.

After the convention centers on Friday we headed out to Kelley and Gran's to see some updates they made to their house and to have a big dinner. It was delicious. We gave my dad a ride home to get his truck. He had to squish inbetween the two car seats. It was pretty funny. I had to take a picture.

We didn't really have much to do the Sunday before last. Well the Steelers had a game on TV and Mike's brother Matt was coming over for Ribs so we turned it into Steelers Sunday. We had a fun day playing outside with the boys, dressing up in our Steelers apparel, and cheering on the Steelers.

This year Rhea Lana's opening pre sale day was October 20th. Since Natalie and Drew's wedding was also on the 20th, that presented a problem. I decided to figure out some ways for me and mom to shop early.

Problem

Current shopping time 6pm

Current Wedding time 5:30pm

Wedding was 3+ hours away

Solution

1. Consign!! Consigners get to shop at 1pm so that was a start.

2. I put up a yard sign and a magnet on my car so that gave me an early workers pass. Now we got to shop at 11am...getting better!!

3. I decided to VOLUNTEER! This was a neat experience. I actually went and worked the sale for 4 hours. It was neat to get to see some behind the scenes stuff and felt great to help out since the sale always does so much for me and other NWA moms. I also enjoyed getting ot visit with other Stay at Home moms. I am definatley going to do this again for the next sale (if I'm not working yet still that is) Now the shopping time.......9am!!! woohoo!! perfect

Problem solved

Current shopping time 9am

Wedding departure time 1pm

Wedding time 5:30pm

First I had to get all my stuff together that I wanted to consign. I had 89 items this year.

I let the kids play in the garage area while I looked through and sorted what I needed to sale.

Bye bye leap frog table...we got this for Max when he was 10 months old at his first Christmas. New in stores is $44.99. I sold 2 at this Rhea Lana's for $15 each!

more tubs....

Everything tagged and ready for Rhea Lana's. Now I just had to fit everything in my car! haha

Bye Bye single stroller. New in stores with car seat $199 plus. I sold at Rhea Lana's for $40!

TIME TO SHOP!

Look at all of these great toys to shop through. Rhea Lana's is a lot of fun to shop. IT's like a huge kids only garage sale, only 100 times the selection and the stuff is in amazing condition.

We found found some great stuff for the boys at Rhea Lana's this year. Below are a few pictures of what we found but here are few to list:

Spiderman Christmas toys for Max

Max's big Christmas gift

Alex's big Christmas gift

A batting helmet, soccer cleats, and soccer shin guards all for when Max starts sports next spring

Max really like's Spiderman and Batman and Superman - so I thought a cute theme that Max would enjoy would be Super Hero Dad. Plus, Mike is just a great dad and husband. He has worked so hard lately on the house and with the boys and with his school. He really has been a super dad, so I thought this theme was very fitting. We went to Hobby Lobby and got stuff for the boys to make caps and masks. We also made him a few signs and hung balloons that spelled out Super Hero Dad. We also ordered him a super hero dad cake - his favorite kind - from Shelby Lynn's. We also had a big Birthday lunch with friends planned at Olive Garden, and I was going to get Dime's meat market steaks for dinner that night - yum. We were all ready for the big day. Unfornately the Monday night (around 11pm to be exact) before his Wednesday Birthday, Mike got sick. not just sick, but very sick with a stomach virus. He stayed home from work Tuesday, and than again on his actual Birthday. on Wednesday we "postponed" the celebration and canceled his Birthday lunch with friends. I took the kids to my mom's house and we let Mike sleep. On Thursday - Mike didn't feel much better at all. He called into work again, slept more. Good news is he started feeling better as the day went on and he even ate some soup! He said we could celebrate that night eventhough he wasn't feeling his best, but because we wanted to have atleast a little celebration before we headed to Branson that Friday for the Triple Birthday celebration. His Birthday was a little different this year, but we learned it's not about the day, it's about being with your friends and family. Below are some pictures of Mike's Birthday week.

Here we are making capes and masks for daddy

The 3 finished capes

Homemade Birthday sign for super dad

Max and the living room decorations

Our tradition of the Birthday flag

Me and Max went to pick up some supplies and a Birthday gift or two for daddy at Walmart

yum....the delicious Shelby Lynn's cake

Ready for the Birthday celebration

So I took a Bathmat we have and I printed out pictures of Mike's head and taped it on all of the super heros. Isn't it funny? Mike got big kick out of it. Max LOVED it. Alex wasn't sure what to think :)

Mike's Birthday card from the boys.....and yes, making this was a mess

Finally time to celebrate. The boys put on their capes

The boys give their super dad a card

One of the gifts from Max and Alex was Mike's favorite candy in a Halloween dish for his office.

The leftover cake we took to Branson the next day. We were'nt leaving this!!!

About Me

Mike and I went on our first date on September 18, 2003 and are getting ready to celebrate the begining of a new year, 2013! We welcome the new year with 6 years of marraige under our belts, 2 healthy boys, a successful career track for Mike, and a fun stay at home family job for me. Let the good times roll :)